The Club was an amalgamation of two clubs with one meeting at the library, sadly where the other club member met is lost to the dim past, it might have been the Two Rivers Club. This merging took place in the late 60’s around 1967/8 to form Andover Split Image Society and from then on became known as ASIPS and we met at the Two Rivers Club, the social club for Kelly’s Printers. The hall had an open area for rows of chairs but also has booths on either side, these were very comfortable and during less inspiring talks members in the booths would occasionally nod off, some talks were paused due to the snoring. The club was located just off Weyhill Road at one end of what is now Kellys Walk.

After Kelly’s closed and the site was redeveloped for housing, we moved to the Red Lion in Clanville and in 1987 we joined forces with the Chapel River Press Camera Club which was founded in 1982.  The new club was called the Andover Split Image Photographic Society and was widely known as ASIPS.

When the landlord didn’t renew the lease on The Red Lion and it closed, we moved to Thruxton village hall, a nice hall but terrible parking.

After about a year a new landlord took over and we went back to the Red Lion in Clanville. However, shortly afterward the Red Lion closed again, and we moved to our current location.

In the 60’s The Andover Photographic Society was one of the founding clubs of the Southern Counties Photographic Federation.

While at the Red Lion we had a talk by Busty Taylor on Crop Circles, Busty was an expert on the subject and gave an interesting talk, he invented the pole method of taking photos of crop circles by attaching a film camera to a 20ft pole (the ultimate selfie stick).

Busty liked the club and joined, during one of the summer recesses he started talking about dousing, this led to about 3 or 4 of the club members walking around the car park with dousing rods. Sadly no photos were taken.

On another occasion we had a slide lecture about Hadrian’s Wall. When the first picture of the wall itself came up, Sandy Wilson said “that was built to keep us out”, from the back of the room came the booming reply “didn’t work then did it” at which point the talk had to be paused

while the members recovered.

During a competition a judge commented on how lucky the photographer was to get such a good picture of a Tawny owl sat in a tree at dusk, before he could give it a score there were loud snorts of laughter, which made him look closer at the picture where upon he realised the owl was stuffed.!

(Thanks to Rod Cotton for his memories.)

With the advent of digital photography, the ‘Split Image’ part of the name no longer had relevance, as the current cameras do not use the split image to achieve focus.  The club formally changed its name to the Andover Photographic Club in January 2019.

As part of the SCPF we compete with other clubs in Print and DPI leagues.

After more than 40 years, John Randall, the only original member, retired at the AGM in May 2024.  John had given sterling support over the years as both Club Secretary and Competitions Secretary.  He had also been one of the premier competition judges for external competitions across our region and offered invaluable advice for our own internal competitions.

Sadly, John passed away on 23 September 2024.

John had spent most of his life renovating cars and tractors and displaying them at various shows and fetes around the country.  He was also a gifted painter and a member of the local artists club as well as a stalwart of our own club.  His loss continues to be felt.

To increase our membership, we have attended markets in the town high street for several years.  We set our gazebo up with laminated images from club members on three sides and invite passersby to come and talk about our images and their photographic achievements.  We have seen the theme of these markets change from providers of food and drink to trade stalls to everything in between.

The advent of Covid saw these markets cease for a two-year period then reinvent themselves as Artisan markets where each stall displayed crafted goods.  Sadly, the footfall decreased and from the end of 2022 it was decided by the market committee that the markets would take a break.

We needed to find an alternative means of displaying our images and recruiting, hopefully, new members.  It was decided to see if space was available for us at some of the many village fetes in the area.

In 2023 we attended Appleshaw, Chute and Penton village fetes. These were ably supported by volunteers and weather permitting were very worthwhile for us to take part.

It helped that club members were on some of the village committee’s which smoothed the way for us to attend.

While this was going on, the Andover Carnival had recommenced after its enforced closure and our gazebo could be spotted in the park as club members recorded the event as official photographers.

During 2024 we attended further village fetes in Chute, Appleshaw and Abbotts Ann and recruited further members. We have been lucky in that our membership has stayed steady at 30 members.

We have always been a small club and have lost members but have recruited new members through our summer efforts.

Our Programme Secretary – Esther Gallimore – organises a rich and rewarding programme catering for as many members that want to take part.  Like other clubs we have been feeling the economic pinch and always seek guidance from our members in ways to keep the programme vibrant and for ways to increase membership. Guests are always welcome and we provide hot refreshments at popular prices which helps augment our income.

Throughout the season we also provide Information snippets, so, if a member has asked for advice on a particular subject a small segment of an evening is devoted to that subject.

We have infrequent Monday night Focus Groups when get togethers take place in the local area (Light trails from a bridge overlooking the A303 and wire wool spinning are two such events that produce some stunning images.)

During the summer months committee members organise day or weekend trips and invite members to partake.  Recent trips have been to the balloon festival (Flying, not inflating them) in Bristol and photographing the wide-open space that is Offord Ness.

During January to March we start to create our programme for next season and always feel that we need to expand our reach, so if you are ever at a loose end on a Thursday evening, you are very welcome to visit us.